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Celine nodded, and we walked in silence for a while before I returned the favor.
“Oh, I’ve gotten close to marriage a thousand times,” she said.
It made my heart sink.
“My dad would have arranged the marriage and declared it in the papers in a heartbeat if I hadn’t dumped them every time.” She laughed. “Or made them dump me.”
“What?” I asked.
She laughed, telling me about her last boyfriend—Clement—who she’d been so difficult with that he’d eventually called it off.
“My dad was furious. After all the guys I’d been with, each of them telling my dad they couldn’t marry me because I was too much trouble, Clement really did a good job holding out as long as he could. I had to get really creative with him, but in the end, he ran just like the rest of them.”
Ah, she’d come close because of her father, not her.
“You didn’t think any of them was worth marrying?” I asked.
“And give my dad what he wanted? Hell no. They were all so caught up in their cash, I was just another possession, anyway. It was better that they decided it was too much.” She smiled, thinking about something. “I guess most men just don’t have what it takes when I’m at my worst, you know?”
“I bet I can handle you at your worst.”
“Oh, you have no idea how bad it can get,” she said with a smirk.
“Try me.”
Celine tilted her head at me. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” I asked.
Celine glanced sidelong at me.
“You saved my life.” She shrugged. “It deserves a hall pass.”
I chuckled. Celine had no idea how heartwarming it was to hear that. No, I just had to get us out of here so that I could woo her properly. I hadn’t wanted to make someone mine more than I wanted Celine to be mine in this moment.
I stepped around a large tree where the trail turned out of sight. I skidded to a halt and held out my arm so Celine didn’t take another step further, either.
In front of us, where the rest of the trail should have been, was nothing more than a large ravine. Everything had washed away.
Far below, I heard the rushing of the river, but this was a dead end.
“Oh, shit,” I breathed.
“What now?” Celine asked, her voice small.
“We’ll have to turn back,” I said. “We’ll have to go back and join the river again until we find something else.”
Celine nodded. “Okay, let’s do that.”
We turned back. I checked my phone one more time, but if we were going back, we would be out of signal for a while still. I felt sick to my stomach. We were in more trouble than I’d hoped we were.
“We’re going to be okay, right?” Celine asked, slipping her hand into mine. I didn’t know if it was for comfort or to offer me strength.
Maybe a bit of both.
“Yeah, of course,” I said.
I willed myself to be right.
